One Thing Today in Tech

Ecommerce company Flipkart, a Walmart unit in India, has raised $3.6 billion in an investment led by GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart. Competition Commission of India has approved SoftBank’s plan to put $450 million in Swiggy; Ola Electric and Hero Electric raise money for expansion; and in today’s tech conversation, Aman Sanduja talks about his am...

Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of the Virgin Group, made a brief flight to space on Sunday, from a spaceport in New Mexico in a plane built by his company Virgin Galactic. Ride-hailing services company Ola has raised $500 million ahead of an IPO. And in today’s tech conversation, Ashish Lachhwani, co-founder and director at Steradian Semiconductors talks about plans for the company’s 4D im...

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest and one the world’s largest IT services companies, crossed the half a million employee mark in the three months ended June 30, the company said on Thursday—reporting its fiscal first quarter results. The company also hit $6 billion in quarterly revenue run rate in a period that was “personally challenging” to many, CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan said. Later...

Ashwini Vaishnaw is India’s new minister for railways, and electronics and information technology, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first major cabinet shuffle since he took on his second term in 2019. Vaishnaw has an MBA from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and has worked with GE Transportation and Siemens. And in today’s tech conversation, Amit Anand, founding partner at Jungle...

Pine Labs, which provides digital payments technologies to merchants, has closed a $600 million funding round that values the Noida fintech company at $3.5 billion. Rival PayU may be in talks to acquire BillDesk for as much as $4 billion. And in today’s tech conversation, CEO Sameer Sawarkar talks about the next phase of growth at Neurosynaptic Communications

China’s ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, has started selling the AI technology of its short video app to other companies, including in India where the app is banned. And in today’s tech conversation, Pooja Goyal at Avishkaar talks about the implications of a survey finding that 95 percent of children polled recalled only male role models in STEM fields.

From an ahead-of-its-times outfit to bring technology to 'medico marketing' to a multinational tech company offering AI and NLP platforms to the world's biggest drugmakers, Indegene has come a long way. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, showed that the Bengaluru company was only getting started. In this special briefing, Manish Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Indegene, recalls the early days of Indegen...

Various EU countries have approved India's vaccines for arriving travellers. Those vaccinated with Covishield are now eligible for travel to Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Iceland and Switzerland, whereas Estonia has recognised all the vaccines authorised by India. And in today’s tech conversation, we talk to Mihir Shah about how his company UE Life Sciences is making early ca...

Byju’s, India’s most valued startup, is discovering the real cost of acquiring WhiteHat Jr. A server that mostly contained data about WhiteHat Junior’s students, parents and teachers—including email addresses, phone numbers and account reset information—was left exposed. And in today’s tech conversation, Partha Narasimhan of Velodyne Lidar talks about the San Jose company’s new India design centre...

US drug company Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in India and Mumbai-based pharmaceuticals company Cipla is in talks to import it. Also in today’s tech conversation, we talk to Snigdha Kumar, a former Flipkart category head for foods. She is now CEO of her own startup—Cora Health in Bengaluru—where she is building an AI-based recommendation engine to personalise healt...

WhatsApp got a breather yesterday in India, after the High Court in the southern Indian state of Kerala dismissed a writ petition that had called upon the central government to ban the instant messaging service provider for allegedly not complying with the country's revised IT rules. Also on the programme, a boy puts a hole in his mother’s bank account buying ‘weapons’ in an online battle gam...

Zydus Cadila is in the advanced stages of trials for its Covid-19 vaccine that can be given to children aged 12 and above says NK Arora, chairman of India’s national technical advisory group on immunisation. Also on the programme, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been banned in the UK; Telegram adds group video chat; and Anand Madanagopal talks about taking sophisticated heart health checks to...

JioPhone Next, a made-for-India Android smartphone that is the result of a collaboration between Reliance Jio Infocomm and Google, will be released on September 10, billionaire Mukesh Ambani announced yesterday. Also on the programme, Disney+ Hotstar has over 250 positions open in India; Razorpay becomes the first payments partner for Twitter’s Tip Jar in India; and Meghna Suryakumar discusses pla...

John McAfee, the creator of the eponymous antivirus software, was found dead Wednesday in prison outside Barcelona. He was 75. Also, TikTok is hoping for an India comeback. Google is tweaking security code that will change Drive and YouTube. Also on the programme, AI helps restore a Rembrandt masterpiece; and Kinner N Sacchdev, co-founder and CEO of Knorish talks about enabling the passion economy

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh and COO Pravin Rao were among the IT company’s top executives who met virtually with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday to discuss the still unresolved glitches in the new income tax portal developed by the company. Also, Google faces EU investigation over ad-tech and CCI probe over Android smart TVs; and IIT Bombay don Manoj Gopalkrishnan unpacks his Tapestry...

Amazon India and Flipkart will likely take a hit if the consumer affairs department’s proposed changes—including a ban on flash sales and curbs on scaling up private labels—get the go-ahead. Also in the programme, Byju’s raises $50 million more; Facebook starts rolling out Live Audio Rooms; and Srikanth Sola, a cardiac surgeon turned entrepreneur discusses plans ahead at his venture Devic Earth.

Mohalla Tech, which operates one of India’s largest local language content-based social media and short video apps, Sharechat and Moj, respectively, is rewarding employees with a share buyback worth $19.1 million. Also in the programme, BharatPe is said to be raising $250 million at over $2.5 billion valuation; Google is working on a ‘find my device network’; and Kushal Nahata, co-founder and CEO...

In today's programme, India’s top five IT services companies will hire 96,000 people in the current fiscal year, Nasscom—the IT industry’s lobby—said in a statement yesterday, after a report by Press Trust of India about automation-led job losses, citing a report by Bank of America. Apple CEO Tim Cook says Android has 47 times more malware versus iOS; India’s wealthy could invest $30 billion in te...

Microsoft’s independent directors unanimously elected Satya Nadella to the role of board chair yesterday, expanding the CEO’s influence in the company. Nadella, who has been CEO of Microsoft since 2014, is one of the most well-known Indian executives leading America’s biggest technology companies. Also in this programme, Mumbai’s BrowserStack is valued at $4 billion after BOND investment; and Lend...

Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine could be headed to India, with the Serum Institute of India manufacturing it. 200 million shots could become available from September to December, Times of India reports. Also in the programme, Microsoft’s Windows 11 leaks; startups Apna and Fampay raise big investments; and Piyush Shah, co-founder of InMobi, talks about group company Glance’s acquisition of ecommerce bu...

Novavax said yesterday that its recombinant nanoparticle protein-based Covid 19 vaccine, demonstrated 100 percent protection against moderate and severe disease and 90.4 percent efficacy overall, after Phase 3 trials. Also in this programme, Google has made its Workspace open to anyone with an account; and later, entrepreneur Harsha Moily talks about his new VC firm, and plans to invest $200 milli...

Leading this briefing is news that America’s technology giants such as Apple and Amazon will have to sell or leave various businesses under wide-ranging antitrust rules proposed by US lawmakers on Friday. Also in this programme, Byju’s ongoing funding round values it higher than Paytm, and space technology startup Astrogate Labs’ CEO Nitish Singh talks about preparations for a satellite launch in...

Leading this briefing is news that Klarna Bank has raised $639 million in fresh equity funding in an investment led by SoftBank Group that values the Swedish fintech startup at $45.6 billion. Also in the programme, Tata Digital is said to be acquiring a majority stake in online pharmacy venture 1mg; and Yashraj Erande of BCG analyses the rise of digital banks in the Asia Pacific region.

Leading this briefing is news that El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, yesterday became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender. The country’s Bitcoin law was been approved by a ‘super majority’ Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s 39-year old president said on Twitter. Also in the programme, President Biden lifts US ban on TikTok; more women in India went online for STEM courses;...

Leading today’s briefing is news that Infosys was panned yesterday after the new version of the income tax department’s e-filing portal that the IT company built didn’t work for many users. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took to Twitter to pull up the company, and chairman Nandan Nilekani assured her the system would stabilise soon. Later on in the programme, Neil Shah, VP Research at Counter...